The present invention is directed generally to telecommunications and, more particularly, to a system and method for user selection of individual affiliations in a telephone network.
Advances in telecommunication technology provide a user with a broad variety of communication options. For example, advances in telephone communication, including wireless telephone and cellular telephone, allow almost instantaneous communication between virtually any two locations on earth. Telephone service providers typically offer wide range of options, such as voice mail, caller identification, call waiting, call forwarding, three-way calling, and the like. The telephone service subscriber can customize their own telecommunications service with the selection of one or more options.
Despite these advances, the user is still limited in determining with whom the user wishes to speak and when the user wishes to speak with certain parties or, at the user""s option, not speak with certain parties. Although caller identification (ID) can identify the calling party, caller ID does not always correctly identify the caller. For example, if the number identification data is not transmitted along with the call, the caller ID device indicates that caller data is xe2x80x9cunavailable.xe2x80x9d In addition, the user must still respond to the ringing telephone and view the caller identification box to determine whether or not to answer the telephone. Thus, existing telephone technologies do not always provide user with the desired degree of control over incoming calls.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there is a significant need for system and method to control incoming calls to a user""s telephone. The present invention provides this and other advantages as will be apparent from the following detailed description and accompanying figures.
A system to specify user-selectable criteria for call processing is implemented on a conventional telephone system, such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN). The user-specified call processing criteria is stored on a network that is accessible by the user for data entry and/or editing, and is also accessible by the PSTN to determine whether call processing criteria exists for the particular caller. The Internet provides a readily available data structure for storage of the user-selectable call processing criteria. The user can establish a database stored on the Internet in association with the user""s telephone number and indicating the user-selectable call processing criteria for one or more potential callers.
The caller may be identified by caller identification data, such as automatic number identification (ANI). Based on the destination telephone number and the caller identification data, the PSTN accesses the Internet and examines an affiliation list corresponding to the destination telephone number. If the caller identification data is present in the affiliation list, the call may be processed in accordance with the user-specified criteria for that particular caller.
The user (i.e., the called party) can specify user-selectable call processing criteria for all incoming calls, incoming calls from selected callers, and may further apply conditional criteria based on user preferences. For example, the user may select all calls during certain times of the day, calls from selected parties during other specified times of the day, and no calls during other times of the day. The user-selectable call processing criteria may be readily edited by the user and may be applied to multiple phone numbers associated with a particular caller.
The system may be readily implemented on current telephone systems with no significant modifications. For example, the system may apply the user-specified call processing criteria at the central office switch to which the destination telephone is coupled. All call processing prior to arrival at that central office switch is performed in accordance with conventional telecommunication techniques and standards. When a call arrives at the central office switch coupled to the destination telephone, the central office switch does not immediately establish a communication link with the destination telephone, but accesses the user-specified call processing criteria on the Internet and applies the call processing criteria. If the call is allowed, the central office switch establishes a communication link with the destination telephone in a conventional fashion to complete the telephone call. If the call is not allowed, the central office switch will not process the call, and may generate a busy signal to indicate that the user is unavailable.
The system may also be implemented at other points in the telecommunication network, such as a central office switch at the originating telephone. In addition, the user-specified call processing criteria may be stored on other forms of networks that are accessible to both the user (i.e., the called party) and the telecommunication system.